Orthodontic brackets typically are small, slotted devices for use during orthodontic treatment. The brackets usually are configured for attachment to the front surfaces of teeth, either by directly cementing a bracket to a tooth surface or by bonding the bracket to a metal band that encircles the tooth, though in some instances brackets may be attached to the back surfaces of teeth. Slots in the brackets, which may be referred to herein as archwire slots and/or as archwire passages, are disposed horizontally, or generally horizontally, and are configured to receive an archwire. Traditionally, an archwire is a resilient, curved piece of wire that may be bent and/or twisted prior to installation in the bracket slots, with the archwire typically extending through the slots of all of the orthodontic brackets that are attached to a patient's upper or lower teeth. Engagement between the archwire and the brackets creates corrective, or prescriptive, forces that are directed to the teeth by the orthodontic brackets to urge the teeth into a correct, or desired, alignment, or occlusion.
Orthodontic treatment of a patient's teeth typically requires periodic adjustment of the forces that are imparted to the patient's teeth by the installed orthodontic brackets, archwire(s), etc. Adjustments include changing the magnitude and/or direction of the forces that are imparted to the patient's teeth, such as to adjust the degree to which torque, tip, and/or rotational forces are imparted to the patient's teeth to change the angulation, inclination, rotation, height, and/or location of the teeth in order to move the teeth toward an optimal, or desired, occlusion.
As used herein, tipping forces refer to forces applied to the tooth in the mesial-distal direction. Thus, tipping forces may impact angulation. Torsional forces refer to forces applied to the tooth by an archwire that is in torsion within the archwire passage. Thus, torsional forces tend to rotate the tooth in the buccal-lingual or labial-lingual direction and may impact inclination. Rotational forces refer to applied forces that tend to rotate the tooth about its long axis.
Adjustment of these forces often is a trial-and-error process that requires removal of the archwire from the archwire slot, bending of the archwire, and re-insertion of the archwire into the archwire slot. Alternatively, the archwire slot may be repositioned. This may include repositioning by removing one or more orthodontic brackets from the patient's teeth and re-locating (the same or a different) orthodontic bracket on the patient's teeth.
Some orthodontic brackets permit repositioning of the archwire slot without removal of the orthodontic bracket from the patient's tooth. However, this process still may be time-consuming and/or may require some amount of trial-and-error fitting. Additionally, adjustable brackets may pose challenges for accurately determining a current archwire slot position, such as with respect to a defined treatment plan, and/or the degree to which an adjustment in the archwire slot position accurately reaches a desired position, which also may be defined by a treatment plan.
Thus, there exists a need for electromechanical systems, methods, and tools for adjusting orthodontic prescriptions of orthodontic brackets with adjustable archwire passages.